AwardWallet receives compensation from advertising partners for links on the blog. Terms Apply to the offers listed on this page. The opinions expressed here are our own and have not been reviewed, provided, or approved by any bank advertiser. Here's our complete list of Advertisers.
Flying Blue Promo Rewards are back again for another month. For the uninitiated, Flying Blue is the loyalty program for Air France, KLM, and a few smaller airlines. And Promo Rewards is the program's monthly promotion to discount award flights by up to 50% off on select routes. Depending on the route, Flying Blue may discount any combination of economy, premium economy, and business class awards.
Before COVID-19, Promo Rewards were available on both short- and long-haul flights. Flying Blue halted these rewards for a period of time due to the pandemic, before reviving the program in fall 2020. However, the list of available flight options looks a lot different than before.
While short-haul promo reward options are plentiful, just ten destinations outside of Europe included on January's list. While flights between Europe and North America are still not included, more and more options outside of Europe are making the cut each month.
Flying Blue Promo Rewards Key Details
- Tickets must be booked through either the Air France or KLM websites.
- Book select award flights by January 30, 2021 to enjoy promotional pricing.
- For Air France flights, travel dates must be between December 31, 2020 and August 30, 2021.
- For KLM flights, travel dates must be between March 31, 2021 and August 30, 2021.
- Discounts of 25-50% are available this month, all on economy bookings.
- There are a total of 47 destinations on the full list, ten of which are long-haul options offering a 50% discount for economy.
- Of the ten long-haul routes included — six carryovers from last month and three (below) are new inclusions:
- Aruba
- Bonaire
- St Martin (on Air France)
- St Martin (on KLM)
Flying Blue Transfer Partners
If you are short on miles, Flying Blue has an expansive network of partnerships. Flying Blue is one of the few frequent flyer programs that is a transfer partner of all major transferable points programs:
- American Express Membership Rewards — 1:1 transfer ratio, immediate transfer time
- Capital One Miles — 4:3 transfer ratio, immediate transfer time
- Chase Ultimate Rewards — 1:1 transfer ratio, immediate transfer time
- Citi ThankYou Points — 1:1 transfer ratio, immediate transfer time
- Marriott Bonvoy — 3:1 transfer ratio, 1-3 day transfer time
Even outside of Promo Rewards, Flying Blue offers several sweet spots for members to take advantage of.
Our Take
Flying Blue Promo Rewards offer an amazing opportunity to get the most out of your points and miles. Destinations for January may not span the globe. But, just the fact that this promotion is continuing after a several-month break is an encouraging sign for award travel.
Historically, flyers couldn't change or cancel Promo Rewards tickets. However, travelers can make changes free of charge until April 1, 2021, per Flying Blue's updated rebooking policy. As with everything related to COVID-19, this policy may extend longer than that as well. Coupled with the unusually long window of opportunity for travel, Flying Blue is making it easier for travelers to capitalize on these deals.
Remember that Flying Blue is a transfer partner of all major transferable points programs. That means when Flying Blue Promo Rewards expand to your region of the world, you will be able to redeem for discounted awards no matter which transferable points you collect.
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
I see no point in reedeming miles in this current situation. The best choice is buying a ticket and renewing the expiry dates of accrued miles with it. Surcharges make redeeming miles not that interesting.
Due to the pandemic situation the prices are very low at the moment and considering the fuel surcharge sometimes (especially in economy) the redemption of miles doesn’t have much advantage even with these promo rewards.
I agree. Most of the time, for now, just paying cash is the way to go.
I see some nice economy class promo to the Caribbean from Europe , hope they will add the businessclass promo on those routes too
IMHO, Flying Blue is by far the EU most convenient and valuable frequent flyer program.
Oh nice! These are nice rewards early in 2021!! Let’s hope other folllow suit!.
I think it’s interesting that the Promo Awards are distinguishing travel on KLM versus Air France. I don’t recall seeing that before, and just recall seeing Promo Awards by destination only and not carrier.
I like that AF is being positive but wide distribution of the vaccine isn’t expected til June. It does give the option to people who had have the vaccine at least for summer travel. Right now we don’t know what will be required for Europe, etc for summer travel. I don’t think I would book something yet to make sure I wouldn’t be scrambling at the last minute to cancel or change, if they put the old rules back or not.
Indeed, the uncertainties are frightfully real.
They run quarterly promos and some of them are pretty amazing. They also are a part of a lot of credit card point programs so it is easy to get flying blue points.
Good offer from Flying Blue, I’ve warmed to their programme of late
Deals like these make me consider where I’d fly if it were not for covid-19. In reality, though, I won’t be doing any non-essential travel anytime soon.
I think technically Saint Martin is in North America but regardless not much for folks in North America to be thrilled about on this one. I also doubt there is that much leisure demand for Paris-Beruit currently. I do like the discount on the Paris-Reunion Island route that’s quite exotic. This island was featured on the latest episode of Grand Tour plus I believe it’s considered as part of France/EU. I was looking for a Paris-Tel Aviv route for my needs but at least they are offering something.
It seems that the Reunion route is often featured in this promotion.
There is no way that I will transfer points to the FB program anytime soon. The program is not exceptionally rewarding to non EU members during the the best of times.
I feel that these award promos have become more underwhelming.
For those of us living in the United States this is a nonevent.
I wasn’t aware these awards could be booked so far out in the schedule. Is this a pandemic-related change? If not, I may have missed out on some good opportunities in the past – d’oh!
It’s definitely a COVID-related change! There was typically just a two-month travel period (e.g. book in November 2019 for travel in Jan-Feb 2020).
If I have Flying Blue points that expire in a year, I book a ticket and cancel my flight. Will that extend the expiration of my points. The points are from a flight I was supposed to take at the end of last March.
Flying Blue has one of the wackiest expiration policies around. We dive into the details here: https://awardwallet.com/blog/air-franceklm-flyingblue-miles-expire/
But to answer your question, you need to have earning activity on your Flying Blue account to extend the validity – redeeming activity doesn’t count. Thankfully expiration is paused through 12/31/2021. So, you have plenty of time!
caribbean destinations are great in january, and most of them are open for tourists
I wish Flying Blue could currently offer a saver award for the route Amsterdam – Vancouver. Anyway, I love this program and am glad to fly both KLM and Air France on a regular basis .
Limited long haul destinations due to covid I think.
I think I’ll not book any reward flight as it’s necessary to book by the end of the year.
Actually, I don’t see clearly what will happen in the next months.
45 deals is pretty good, all things considered. Obviously none are from the US nor do I foresee any in the immediate future.
For individuals living in the United States there is nothing to get excited about.
A good deal for travelling when COVID risk decreases.
Its good that they have restarted these promo awards. Now just hoping the good promos start coming back.
This is good promo, but not best. I have to stay at home or else i am afraid i will be get COVID. Make me be health.
I agree, travelling in Europe just wouldn’t be as fun right now anyway.
Using flying blue points after transferring from Chase is one of my best uses for them, love the promos!
Flying blue is a good option to collect miles on skyteam airlines. Hope they make a good deal yo buy miles with a nice bonus
Hopefully North American flights will return in these promos some time next year when the COVID19 situation improves..
No longhaul routes with greater than 20% discount this month. Meh.
This shows that the pandemic is still affecting all travel including promos for travel awards.
Tahiti would be a nice escape from 2020’s madness. I wonder if they allow US citizens in yet?